Apple Takes Oppo and Ex-Engineer to Court Over Alleged Trade Secret Theft

Apple has taken legal action against its former engineer, Dr. Chen Shi, accusing him of stealing highly confidential technology and handing it to Oppo.

The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of California, alleges that Dr. Shi left Apple in June 2025 after years of working on advanced sensor systems for the Apple Watch, only to join Oppo and lead a U.S.-based team there. Apple contends that he took with him sensitive information on unreleased products and proprietary health sensor designs, including specifications for ECG and temperature sensors that form the core of Apple Watch’s health features.

According to Apple’s filing, just days before his resignation, Dr. Shi allegedly copied 63 secret documents onto a USB drive. These files reportedly contained technical roadmaps, hardware and software details, and information from Apple’s chip development team working on custom AI processors. Internal phone records also suggest that Dr. Shi had been in direct communication with Oppo executives before he formally quit, even messaging them about gathering internal materials for later use.

Apple claims Dr. Shi misled colleagues by saying he was returning to China for family reasons, while secretly preparing to work for Oppo and its California research arm, Innopeak. In fact, he scheduled dozens of one-on-one meetings at Apple about projects he wasn’t directly involved in, allegedly to collect more confidential insights. Oppo, however, denies any wrongdoing, saying it found no evidence linking Dr. Shi’s actions to its business operations.

The iPhone maker is now seeking a court injunction to block Oppo from using its trade secrets and is demanding restitution for damages. While Oppo does not officially sell products in the U.S., its Silicon Valley research centers have long been seen as an attempt to gain a foothold in American tech innovation. If Apple prevails, the case could have major consequences for how global tech firms handle employee mobility and intellectual property in the race for next-generation wearables and AI chips.